There are two separate and distinct aspects of your being that need to be recognized. The part of you that most of us see is your ego; this is that part of you that “sets you apart” from the rest of us. Your style, your individuality comes from your ego. All of your hurt, disappointments, hatred and pain flow from your ego and it is your ego that tells you that your happiness cannot exist without your pain.
To the ego one extreme is dependent on the other extreme. Duality at its best. The ego tells you that life is found in the extremes of pain and joy and that one cannot exist without the other. Your ego tells you this because it is finite. Spoiler alert!! Your ego dies when you leave this existence. Your ego cannot comprehend eternity because it is not eternal. Therefore, it creates illusions of life and death, good and evil because that is all it can ever know.
The second aspect of your being is that which is immortal and eternal, it is the part of you that cannot die, which is constant and needs nothing. It is your Higher Self, your soul, the true you, the only part of you that is real. It is real because it cannot be changed by thought which means it is eternal. Get it? If you can change something within the illusion of this world, it is of this world and will stay in this world when you leave it. That is the marker of that which is illusion.
Our quest in this existence is simply to recognize that we are not our egos, we are not finite beings, and to remember and embrace who we truly are. Our Higher Self quietly waits, just behind our ego, for us to remember. That which is Truth never needs to shout, or bully its’ way to the front. Shakespeare got it right with his famous line “Thou protesteth too much”. Your higher self, your soul, who you truly are, is waiting for you to look within and come Home to claim your true self.
That is not to say that the ego does not have its place. Your ego helps you to navigate this world. We all need an ego, but we must not lose sight of who we are and allow the ego to take over.
This is the concept that has been so mangled by modern religion. Those that associate only with the ego and refuse to recognize their higher selves are truly the “walking dead”. We “rise from the dead” when we claim our true selves as Holy Children of Spirit. Similarly, to be “born again” is to truly view this world from the perspective of your Higher Self and not your ego.
Shake off that which is not real. Wipe away the shadows cast by your ego and remember that you are a part of Spirit, you are free of the “sins” of the ego and Spirit, itself, is not complete without you.
Now we are doing yoga…
Namaste
Blair is the co-owner of Yoga Daily in Mt. Pleasant, SC. [https://yogadailymountpleasant.com] He is a certified yoga instructor, recovering lawyer and a spiritual student. The content of this blog is what Blair considers to be universal truths that span all dogma and religion and it is offered to you in Love and Light. Check out Yoga Dude [https://yogadailymountpleasant.com/the-yoga-dude/] for additional blog entries. You can contact Blair at blair@yogadailymountpleasant.com. Yoga is but one path to the knowing that we are all One. Please take what resonates with you and leave the rest without judgement or offense.